Sunday, May 14, 2017
Sunday, May 7, 2017
Friday, February 12, 2016
Biography of PAU CASALS (by Fina Iglesias)
I’m going to write about a musician man who was the
best one in his period.
He was born in El Vendrell in 1876. He started
studying piano, flute and violin when he was five years old.
One day, he saw a person who was playing an instrument
in a special position. It was a cello, he became keen on that instrument and
decided to learn violoncello. When he was studying, he met Isaac Albeniz who helped
him to get some contacts. Afterwards he could continue his classes in Madrid.
He got a degree very early and he played the cello on a particular and personal
way.
He travelled around the world giving concerts and
played side by side with other musicians.
Pau Casals always fought to give support to freedom
for Catalonia and he participated in several concerts for peace.
Saturday, January 16, 2016
Biography of Victòria dels Àngels (by Roser Riudor)
Victòria dels Àngels (Barcelona 1923-2005) was a Spanish
singer who highlighted as a lyric and opera soprano. She was born Victoria de los Ángeles López García and
lived her childhood and youth in the porter’s lodge of the University of
Barcelona where her father was a caretaker.
She always admitted her humble origins despite her success
in her professional carreer. She was a model of an anti-diva.
Victoria studied at Barcelona Conservatory. In 1941,
while she was still a student, she made her operatic debut at the Liceu, as Mimí,
in La Bohème but it was in 1945 when she returned to the Liceu to make her
professional debut as the Countess in “The marriage of Figaro”. After winning first prize in the Geneva International
Competition 1947, she sang “Salud” in Falla’s La vida Breve in 1948.
She played around the world. In 1949 she made her first
apparance at the Paris Opera as “Marguerite” (Fausto) and, a year after, she made her debut in Salzburg and, after that, at The Royal Opera House (London), Carnegie Hall,
Metropolitan Opera (New York), Teatro Colón (Buenos Aires), La Scala (Milán),
Viena State Opera, etc. In 1961, Victoria de los Ángeles became the first Spanish
singer who had performed at the Bayreuth Festival, as “Elisabeth” in Tannaüser.
Her farewell to opera was at the theater La Zarzuela,
in Madrid in 1982, but in 1992 she sang at the Barcelona Olympic Games. Her last concert was at the National Theater of Catalonia,
in Barcelona in 1997.
Once again, the Hospital of Sant Pau is hosting the
“Victoria de los Ángeles Lied Festival”, from 20 to 29 november 2015.
Her life can be included in her sentence “I’m just someone
singing and I would like to be remembered well”.
Biography of Malala Yousafzai (by Montse Vilà)
Malala Yousafzai is an activist for the right to
education, especially female education. She was born in Mingora, Pakistan on
July 12 in 1997. Her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, was the owner of a chain of schools known
as the Khushal Public School and an education activist in Pakistan. Now he is
the United Nations Special Advisor on Global Education and also the educational
attaché of Pakistan in its consulate in Birmingham, United Kingdom. Her mother,
Tor Pekai Yousafzai, is a housewife. Recently she has learned to read and write,
and to speak a bit of English. Malala has two younger brothers, Khushal and Atal.
Although her family didn't have much money and
life was difficult in Pakistan, Malala Yousafzai had a happy childhood. She went to school in Mingora, one of her father's schools. She was a very good student because she loves
learning and going to school. She wanted to become a doctor.
She became interested in girls education and got involved in it because of the injustice that was happening in her country
and with the support of her family, especially his father, who always
encouraged her. She began speaking about education rights in September 2008, when
her father took her to Peshawar to speak at the local press club. In January
2009, Malala began writing a blog under the pseudonym Gul Makai for the BBC
detailing her life under Taliban occupation. At that time the Taliban banned
television and music, women were prevented from leaving home alone and girls
were forbidden to go to school. In summer 2009, a journalist for the New York Times
made a documentary about her life in Pakistan. Then she was revealed as the author
of the BBC blog. Malala and her father received death threats but continued to
speak out for the right to education. Since then she has become more known by giving
interviews in print and on television. In 2011 she received Pakistan's first
National Youth Peace Prize and was nominated for the International Children's
Peace Prize.
On October 9, 2012, when Malala and her friends were going back home by the school bus, a masked gunman got on the bus and shot her. The
bullet went through her head, neck and shoulder. Two other girls were also
wounded in the shooting. Malala survived but was in a critical condition. She was quickly moved to a military hospital in Peshawar where doctors operated her as an emergency because her brain was swollen. Two days later the doctors decided to
take her to a military hospital in Rawalpindi. On October 15, she was moved to
Birmingham, United Kingdom for treatment at a hospital that specializes in
military injuries. A few days later she came out of the coma and was responding
well to treatment. On October 25, she was reunited with her family. Until then, she had not cried, but when she saw them, she collapsed. They all ended up crying. On 3
January, 2013, Malala was discharged from the hospital to continue her
rehabilitation at her new home. The Taliban's attempt to kill Malala received
worldwide condemnation and led to protests across Pakistan. While she was in hospital she received much support from people around the world.
In March 2013, she returned to school in
Birmingham. On July 12 2013, Malala's 16th birthday, she spoke at the United Nations to call for
worldwide access to education. The UN
dubbed the event "Malala's Day". In that speech she said: "One
child, one teacher, one pen and one book can change the world". Since then
this sentence has become her motto. In that same month, Malala met Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace. In October her autobiography was published and she met Barack Obama and his family. In that year, Malala and her father co-founded
the Malala Fund, a nonprofit association to bring awareness to the social and
economic impact of girls' education and to encourage girls to raise their
voices, to unlock their potential and to demand change. In May 2014, she participated in the campaign
for the release of the young Nigerian, who was abducted while studying by an Islamic
group that rejects women education.
On 10 December, 2014, Malala won the Nobel
Peace Prize. She is the youngest person ever to win a Nobel Prize. She contributed
her $1.1 million prize money to financing the creation of a secondary school
for girls in Pakistan. On 12 July 2015, her 18th birthday, she opened a school
in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, near the Syrian border, for Syrian refugees. On
20 August she got good grades in her GCSE exams. She had achieved six A*s and
four As. In October a documentary entitled ""He named Malala"" was released. In November, she met Emma Watson. During the interview Malala told her that thanks to Emma Watson's speech at the United Nations , she had become feminist.
She plans to remain in the UK for the rest of her education. She wants to go to a good university and study politics. She
hopes to become prime minister of her country some day. She and her family hope
to return to his beloved Pakistan.
I admire her a lot because she has been and still is very brave. It is a role model and an inspiration. Her effort
and dedication encourages me to be care more for other people and a better person. We need more
people like her in the world. I wish her all the best in life because she deserves it.
Sunday, January 10, 2016
Biography of Ona Carbonell Ballestero, by Mireia Guimerà
Ona Carbonell Ballestero
Captain of Spanish synchronized
swimming team.
Ona Carbonell Ballestero was born in Barcelona on 5 July, 1990, but
now she lives in Mallorca.
She began her sport education in rhythmic
gymnastics and when she has 10 years old, she changed her preferences to synchronized
swimming and at the age of 14, he trained in Car Sant Cugat, the high efficiency
sports center of Barcelona, where the elite athletes of Spain train. Now she
is 25 years old and is the captain of Spanish synchronized swimming team.
She has participated in three junior world
championships, four absolute world championships, and an Olympic Game, and has
won 40 gold medals, 26 Argent medals and 24 bronze medals in her life.
Her most important victory was the Olympic
medal in London, 2012, and the last awards were silver and bronze in Kazan world
championships in 2015.
Today, Ona is one of the best and most renowned
figures in the Spanish sport,
Biography of Elvis Presley, by Montse Zamorano
ELVIS AARON PRESLEY was born in Tupelo,Mississippi the US, on January 8,1935. His
parents were Gladis Love and Vernon Elvis Presley. When he was 13
years old, he and his family moved to Memphis, Tenessee.
He
studied at L.C.
Humes High School. Presley received only a
C in music in eighth grade, When his music teacher told him he had no
aptitude for singing. He joined the United States Army (1958-1960) with a rang of Sargent.
His
music career began in 1954. Presley's first single HeartbreakHotel
was released in January, 1956. It was a number-one hit in the US. He
became his music career as a rock and roll figure. In
November 1956, he made his film debut in Love me Tender
.
Elvis sang in different genres: Rock and Roll, Rockabilly, Pop, Country
and Gospel.
He
married Priscilla Beaulieu in 1967 and they had a child, Lisa
Marie Presley. In 1973,
Priscilla and Elvis got divorced, he had become
addicted to many drugs.
Elvis
Presley died on August 16, 1977 (aged 42) in Memphis, Tenesse, US.
Biography of Joan Manuel Serrat, by Júlia Morente
Joan Manuel Serrat was born in Poble Sec, a
neighbourhood of Barcelona, on December 27, 1943. He is one of the most
important figures of modern, popular music, in both the Spanish and Catalan
languages, who started the Nova Cançó
Catalana (new Catalan song) together with other Catalan musicians. Josep,
his father, was an anarchist, member of the CNT, and he worked at the Gas
Company as an electrician. His mother, Ángeles, was born in Belchite, Zaragoza.
She was a housewife and also worked as a dress-maker.
His childhood
and environment in his neighbourhood impacted him as he described Catalonia,
after the Spanish Civil War. He studied agricultural engineering, but he became
involved with music when he was 16 after his father gave him a guitar. He
dedicated him one of his firsts songs: La guitarra.
In 1960 the
young artist participated in a pop band. In 1965 he joined the group Els setze Jutges, which defended the Catalan
language during the Franco’s dictatorship. ElsVells Amants i Els Titelles, which
Serrat sang at the Palau de la Musica Catalana, served to establish him as one
of the most important artists in the Nova
Cançó Catalana.
In 1968, he was
chosen to sing the song La La La at
the Eurovision Song Contest. He asked to sing it in Catalan, but the Spanish
authorities didn't agree, so he refused to sing it in the Spanish version, and he
was replaced by the singer Masiel. As a result, Serrat's music was banned in
Spain.
In 1974, he was
exiled in Mexico, after he had condemned the arbitrary executions under
Franco's Regime. He was acclaimed in South America and the USA. He came back to
Spain before Franco's death, and he sang Catalan songs as well as Spanish
songs.
In 1969, his
first child, Queco, was born. In 1978, Serrat got married to Candela, a well
being family's daughter, and in 1969 was born their daughter Maria was born.
Since his
beginnings, he was the best photographer of the Spanish reality with his irony
and sensitivity. In his songs, he gave voice to poets like Machado, Miguel
Hernández, Rafael Alberti and some others, and his own lyrics are always poetry.
Nowadays, in
Spain, he has been recognised as a very important musician. Not long ago, he
overcame a cancer, however, nowadays he continues singing and acting.
Biography of Gabriel García Márquez, by Maria Lluïsa Iborra
Gabriel
José de la Concordia García Márquez – Gabriel García Márquez, was
born on March 6, 1927 in Aracatana (Colombia)
His
parents were Gabriel Eligio García and Luisa Santiaga Márquez.
He
was raised by his grandparents ; the colonel Nicolas Márquez and
Tranquilina Iguaran; they were his first influence on his writings.
In
1936, when his granfather died, Gabriel moved to his parents' house in Sucre and he studied at a boarding school in
Barranquilla.
From
1940 he studied at San José school where he wrote his first romances for the school journal.
After his graduation, in 1947, he lived in Bogotá for studying Law at the National University of Colombia. In 1947, he published his first short story La
tercera resignación in the newspaper El Espectador.
In
1948 Gabriel gave up law studies and started to work as a reporter and
writer.
He married Mercedes Barcha in 1958 and they had two sons: the oldest one, Rodrigo, was born in 1959; and the youngest one, Gonzalo, was
born in 1962. Rodrigo is a movie director and Gonzalo is a graphic
designer.
García Márquez is best known for his novels, such as Cien años de
soledad (1967), El otoño del patriarca (1975)
and El amor en los tiempos del cólera (1985). Most
of his books are based or set in his birth place, Aracataca. He
mostly wrote books about realism or magical realism. His themes included solitude and violence.
In
1982, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature "for his novels
and short stories, in which the fantastic and the realistic are
combined in a richly composed world of imagination, reflecting a
continent's life and conflicts".
García
Márquez was appointed mediator at the talks for peace between the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN) and the Colombien government
in Cuba, and between the “Belisario Betancourt” government and
the group Movimiento 19 de Abril (M-19).
García
Márquez wrote his last book in 2004. He retired in May 2008 because
of his age and health.
In April, 2014 García Márquez was internee in the Instituto de
Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición in Mexico DF, for the relapse of the lymphatic cancer diagnosed in 1999.
Gabriel
García Márquez died in Mexico DF, on April 17, 2014.
The President of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos, said about García Márquez:
“The writer was the Colombian who put further and higher the name of our land in all the history of our
country".
Biography of Josep Manel Anglada, by Joaquim Dencàs
Remembering a
person
His name's Josep Manel Anglada, and he has been a famous climber
in the world of mountain climbing. He was born in Barcelona in 1932, and his father
was a small industrial. I don't know anything about his parents, and he didn't
speak about them. He has a brother too, and he is a nephew of the painter, her
name was Lola Anglada Sarriera.
Between the years 1955 and 2000 he was the most
famous Catalan climber. When he was 6 years old, he studied the Liceu francès in Barcelona. Afterwards, he moved to France with his parents until the Spanish Civil War was over. At the age of 14 years old, in 1947, he continued his studies at the
college in Didsbury, England, to learn the English language, and a year later,
at the French college in Loreburne, France, but every summer, he spent his
holidays in El Figaró.
He was known by his friends for travelling around the world, and he began to climb his first mountains with them.
He holds the Gold Medal of the city of Barcelona for having reached the top of the highest mountains in the world.
He also worked as a technician manager of one of the Spanish expeditions to the Himalayas. He has climbed the Andes, Alps, in Africa
and all other continents, too.
He's not married, and he doesn't have any children as far as I know,
because we have never spoken about them.
At the age of 65 years old, he climed the Everest, and now at the age of 82 years old, he continues walking in our mountains.
Note:
Now, I want tell a personal story: One day, I needed his help to get to the top of a mountain top. If it had not been for him, perhaps today I might not be here.
I will always have a fragment of those good memories on my mind.
Biography of Charlie Rivel, by Cristina Calduch
Charlie Rivel was one of the most worldwide known clowns. He took his artistic name in homage to Charlie Chaplin.
Josep Andreu i Lasserre (that was his real name)
was born in Cubelles on April 24, 1986 and died in Sant Pere de Ribes on July
26, 1983.
All his family members were also circus performers. He debuted at the age of just three years old and he
was part of the group LOS RIVELS with his brothers.
In 1941, when World War II began, Charlie Rivel was
in Berlin and went to Denmark, but when the Nazis occupied the country forced
him to return to fulfill their contracts. Then it was a recognized and famous
clown. German people loved him, and his success was absolutely spectacular.
Three sessions filled daily L'Scala Varietés. Afterwards, Charlie asked for help to
return to Spain. From 1954, he became one of the stars of the
Circo Price. In 1971 he appeared in the film Clowns directed by Federico Fellini.
Please keep in mind his funny image
wearing a long shirt, his curly red wig, his guitar and a chair. There is a museum dedicated to him in Cubelles and also
a park in Vigo.
Hello everybody!
My name is Anna and I’m from Granollers. I'm currently studying English at CFA Vallès school and I’m
also looking for a job. I love travelling, everywhere, and I like going out to have
fun.
Last summer I went to Japan and I liked it. It’s amazing and different,
the people are lovely and friendly. The only problem is the long hour journey on the plane,
it is very hard, but, other than that, it was fantastic.
Anna Baqué
Sunday, December 13, 2015
Hello everybody!
My
name is Carme. I was born in Lleida, but now I live in Llinars del
Vallès.
I'm
married and my husband works as a teacher at a primary school. We
have one son. My son works in the audiovisual media world.
Now,
I'm retired, but before I also worked as a teacher. My
favorite hobbies are: cinema, reading, music, theatre and specially
travelling.
During
the day, I do the housework. I clean my home, cook, I go to the
pool and I also study English on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On
Wednesdays I study photography and on Mondays I sing Gospel.
Last
summer, I
went to
Norway on holidays with
my husband and some
friends.
Carme Zapater
October, 2015
Hello everybody!
My name is Joana. I was born in Cadis, but I've lived in Catalonia for a long time. I’m fitty-two, I’m married and I have
two sons Marc and Christian.
I’m a student at the University of
Barcelona, I’m studying Literature and Modern Languages.
I like doing sport, My favorite sport is swimming but above
everything, I like walking in the mountains. I like another hobby: listening to music, my favourite band is Catarres and I also like Eros Ramazzotti among other singers.
What music do you like?
Joana Silva
October, 2015
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